Twenty years ago — 1998

An OBSERVER editorial notes that nothing Congressman Amo Houghton has done during his 12 years in office has come close to raising the ire of so many Republicans as his announcement that he favors censure and not impeachment of President Clinton. Houghton’s Washington and satellite offices in the 31st District have been inundated with telephone calls and faxes. Some of his most ardent supporters in Chautauqua County were very upset when they heard the news. The OBSERVER agrees that censure is the better choice.

Thirty years ago — 1988

Margaret Edson Dean, a 1974 alumna of Fredonia State University College, was a participating Fredonia delegate at the inauguration of the Rev. Thomas Savage S.J. as president of Rockhearst College, Kansas, City, Mo. At age 44, Father Savage is the youngest president of a Jesuit college in America. An attorney, Ms. Dean resides in Kansas City, where she is an associate member of the law firm of James, Millert, Houdek, Tyrl and Sommers. She is the daughter of Paul E. and Joan FitzPatrick Dean of Dunkirk.

Forty years ago — 1978

Mrs. Claribel Brumagin of Route 20, Fredonia will be in New York City for an interview with Martha Stewart, independent producer of “Are You Listening?,” a program televised on Cable TV throughout the country. The program will consist of a 12-member panel of women, all widows, whose experiences as widows will be discussed. Mrs. Brumagin, selected because of her experience as a “rural widow,” will be accompanied by Ms. Carol Hayes-Raat, director of the Displaced Homemaker Center in Fredonia. Mrs. Brumagin, who lived on a farm most of her life, raised four children and was twice widowed. She is a client of the Fredonia DPH Center.

Fifty years ago — 1968

A “Do You Remember?” photo shows the old Erie Hotel, once a favorite stopover oasis for New York to Chicago rail passengers. Owned by the late John J. Murphy, the hotel, ravaged by fire Nov. 17, 1952 was a leading eastern hostelry, boasting among other superlative features, a fine cuisine. When it passed, an era in Dunkirk went with it. The old Erie Hotel saw much of the city of Dunkirk’s history before and after the turn of the century pass by its doors.